Microscope



July 20, 1937.. H. N. OTT 2,087,329

NICROSCOPE "ili,

INVENTOR Patentee 51123, 2%, 1937 Harvey N. Ott, Bufialo, N. Y.,

assignor te Speneer Lens Company, Bufialo, N. Y.

rgina appication November 16, 1935, Serial N0- 50, 6 Dived and this applieation June 25, 193.5, Serial NO. 87,189

2 Ca-ims.

This nventon relates to mprovements in binocular mcrosoopes of the knd havng the optical axes of a par of objectves arranged ai; different angles from those of the optcal axes of the eye pieces or oculars.

In such a microsoope t 1's desrable to have the axes of the oculars converge ai; substantially the normal angle of convergence of the human eyes, which s usually about eight degrees, so that a person using the mcroscope oan remove hs gaze from the instrument for readng or making notes, end return to the microscope Wthout requrng readjustment of the eyes.

On the other band, che angle between the par of objectves should preferably be somewhat greater than the angle between the oculars, say sixteen degrees, since by so disposng the objectives greater perspectve and stereoscopic effect results.

Th1's applcaton a division of my copendng application for Letters Patent, Serial No. 50,165, filed November 16, 1935 for Improvements in mcrosoopes.

An object of this inventon s to provide a binocular rncroseope Wth novel, improved. and smpified refiecting means, in the nature of a prsm system for changng the angle of the image rays' from one anglo at the pared objectives to a different angle at the oculars, and for erectng the image.

Another object of the nventon is to provide a. novel prsm system of ths sort, one for each eyepece Whch s composed of he minimum nunber of parbs end s relable and dependable in use.

Various other objecs end advantages of the nvention will be apparent from the followng descript-on of an ernbodiment thereof and the nove1 features of the invention W1 be pointed out in connecton wth the appended claims.

Fig. 1 is a face vew, partly in section, of a portion of a bnocuar microscope in which the features of my inventon are embodied;

Fig. 2 1's a plan vew, partly in secton, of one of the reflectng sys'rems of the nstrument, mounted in its housng;

Fig. 3 is a sfide elevation thereof, taken in the dreccion of the arrows, Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 s a perspective view of two prsms foimng one of the refeotng means of the instrument, detachd from their mountings, anzi illustrating the pah of lgnt rays therethrough from one 01 the objectves to its assooated ocular;

Fig. 5 s a perspectve view of a, mounting for the prisms of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a diegrammatc representation of the prisms showng the passage of a 1ght ray therethrough.

'Ihe optical system of the instrument, as shown in Fig. 1, incudes one or more sets of pared objectives, one pair 28 of whch s llustrated in Fig. 1, end a pair of oculars or eyepiece tubes 21. Dsposed between each cbjeotive and one of the oculars 21 s one of my improved reflecting systems 22 so postonec thet image rays passing upwarrly through an objective 23 are diverted by the assooiated refiecting system end re- .flected to the companon ooular 21 at an angle difierent to that of the image rays al: che objectve. The reflecting systems 22 2.150 erect the images.

Each refiecting system 22 is mounted in a housng 25 which includes a base 2% end a cap or cover porton 2?. The prsm housngs 25 are substantialy of cylindrical orm and the base 26 of each housng s rotatably connected to the top of a body member or support 15 by a hollow swivel connecton 28 which s concentrc wth the axis of the? related objective 25, see Fgs, 1 and 2. Eaoh eyepece tube or ocular 21 s mounted eccentrically of the swive connecton of its supporting housing 25 upon the top WBI of the housing and, by rotatng the housings 25 aboub ther swvel oonnection 28, the oculars 21 may be moved towards and from eaoh other so that they may be adjusted to suit the pupillary distances of the eyes of different users or the nstrumens.

As shown, each objectve is mounted in the lower porton of the body member 15, in alinement with the hollow swvel connecton 28 of the related ooular mountng. The details ci che mountng in Whch the objectives are supported are fully discosed in my sad pendng applicaton Serial No. 50,165, to whch reference may be had for a more full dsclosure.

Hoxvever, in orcer to produce the desired stereoscopc efiect, the axes of the two objectives 26 may be arranged et a sutable ange, for example, about 16 apart.

On the other band the tWo oeulars 2! are each dsposed so that the angle between them s consderably less than 16, say approxmately 8, whereby che user of the instrument san vew objects through the instrument et a more convenent or comfortable angle, tha, is, an anglo whch s approximately that of ns eyes when making notes or observations adjacent the nstrument,

the oculars, at the same time being slightly inolned. toward. the user.

Each of the refleoting means or systems 22, before mentoned, noludes two reflectng unts or structures, each havng a pair opposed, angularly related reflectng surfaces dsposed so that imago rays passng up=warclly through an objectve 25 are ntereeptecl by a reflecting surface of one of said unts and are dverted therefrom to the other surfaoe of that unt in a path lateral to the axis of that objectve, and are then in turn diver'oed baok along a path towards the ob-jectve to one of the reflecting faees of the other unit, from which the rays are, in turn, reflected. to the other face of that unt. The rays are then divertecl upwardly by that face through the associated ocular 29 but at a different angle to the pach of the rays through the objectve, and. durng the passage of the rays through the reflectng means or system 22,1;he mage is ereoted.

In the construoton illustrated, the refieotng unts of each reflecting system 22 oomprses a par of glass prsms 15 and 'l rigiclly mountecl upon the base 26 of the housing for the system. The prism E has tvvo reflecting faces H and '53 whch are arrangecl so that the angle between them (Whch s preferably 90) faces towarcls the objeotve With whch il; s associate'd anol is so dsposed that the face l? thereof extends oblique- 1y at any angle of 45 across the axis of that objective, whle the other reflectlng face 78 s disposed laterally of said axis. The other prism or unt 55 is also formed. Wth two opposec reflecting surfaoes l'8 and 88 so that the angle between them faces upvvardly towards the associated ocular 25 Wth the fase 80 extending oblquely across the axs of that ocular. The prsms or units 715 and E6 are completed by faces 82 and 83 extendng across the angles of the prisms. The tvvo prsms of eaoh system are dsposed crosswse of and at rght angles to each other Wlth approxmately half of the face 82 of the prsm E5 extending parallel W'lth and preferably engagng upon approxmately half of the fase 83 of the prsm 'ri5 as shown clearly in Fig. 4. The other porton of the face 83 is out away al: a. slghb angle or taper as shovvn in Fgs. 3 and 6 so that ths portion, which faces the ooular 2l, Will be normal to the axis of that ocular to thereby avoid distortion of the image by refraction. By this arrangement t Will be seen upon reference to Fig. 4 that a ray of light passing upwardly from the objective firstmpinges upon the oblique fase Il! of the prsm 'L5, is diverted transversely thereby to the opposeol face '58 which in turn refleots the ray downwardly through the abuttng portions of the faces 82 and 83 of the tWo prsms. The ray continues through those faces to the oblique fase 9 of the prsm '15, is clverted thereby in a lateral directon (but at righi: angles to the drecton in which t was first slirectecl laterally by the face TE) until its ntercepted by the last oblique fase 85 of the prism E6. I-ere it s reflected. upwardly through the ocular.

In order to change the anglo between the rays passing through a. par of objeotves which, as above stated, may be approxmately 16 to a diffelent anglo, say an anglo 01 approxmately 8 between the ooulars I orm one cf the prisms, of eaoh refiee 'ng system, for example, the prsm '55 so that the anglo between the refiecting faoes thereof is greater than a rght angle, far exarnple, 93, while the corresponcling anglo of the prism 15 is 90.

As W'l]. be seen from an examinaton of Figs, 1 and 2, the top fase 95 of the part H6 of the body s divided into two portions which are slghtly nclned in opposite direc;ions from front to rear o-f the nstrument from a line passng through the axs art and these inolned fase planes are normal or at right angles to the axes of the objeotves, and the base 25 of the ho-usngs 25 are in parallel relation to these faoes. The prism systems 22 in said housings 25 are rigidly mounted so as to turn Wlth the housings, and slnoe, as before stated, the swivel conneotons 28 are concentrc Wth the axes of the objectves, the anglo at which the image rays leave the refiectng systems and pass into the ooulars Will remain the same W'lth reference to the axs of the objectives in any postion to whioh the housings and oculars are turned for adjusting the pupllary distance between the oculars.

However, in the movement of the oculars towards and from one another in their adjustments to difierent pupllary dstances the angle between the axes of the oculars Wll change slightly. The maximum change in use, however, s relatvely small, say from an angle of about 7 to an angle of about 9 or This varaton s of advantage in that a person havng a relatively narrow pupillary dstance Will normally see things at close range through a narrower stereoscopic angle-than a person having a wder pupillary diesis-ance, and vice versa.

The reflecting means or prism system 22 can be rigidly mounted in the housings 25 in any suitable way. As shown in the drawing, see

Figs. 1, 2 and 5, I provide the base 25 of each housng With an upstanding, hollow boss or sleeve 96 whoh is apertured concentrically Wth the swvel connection for that housing, and this boss terminates in a flat face across which an end of the prsm extends so as to postion the reflecting fase T1 thereof to ntercept the rays from the assocated objectve. This prism 15 is rigidly secured in ths poston between a fixed or integral plate 98 extending upwardly from the boss 96, and a clampng bar 99 Which is secured to the plate 98 by sorews lilli. The other prism 76 s secureol between a fiat fase l02 on the boss 96 and a clamping bar E53 as by screws HM. The swivel connecton between each housng and the part H5 of the body may be constructed by the provison of a downwardly extending annular shouloler l58 formed on the bottom or base 26 of the prsm housing and which rotatably fits in a hole extendng through the top wall of said. part 15. A ring or retaining member l 50 abuttng the bottom face of the shouloler 108 and the adjacent bottom face of the wall of sad arm part l6 and sutably secured, acts to retan the housing in rotatable connected relation to the part H6.

I claim as my nventon:

1. In a microscope having an objective, an ocular which has ts axis at one side of and at approximately an anglo of 4 to said objective, reflecting means interposed between said. objective and said ocular comprising a prism having a pair of opposed, inclined reflecting surfaces with an anglo between thm of 90", one of said surfaces being dsposed to receive imago rays from sad objective and reflect the same to the other surface of sad prsm, and a second prism having a pair of reflecting surfaces With an angle between them of 93, one of sad surfaces beng dsposed to receive the image rays from the second surface of said first prism and refiect them to the second surface of sacl second prsm, said. second surface of sad second prsm being dsposed to reflect said. rays nto said. ocular, and one of sad prisms beng arranged in a direction transverse of the other prism, whereby an image is erected in the passage of said rays through sad reflecting means, and is reflected into the ocular along the axs thereof by reason of the 93 angle between the reflecting surfaces of said second prsm.

2. A binocular microscope havng a set of paired objectves havng ther axes at an angle of approxmately 16, two oculars arranged wth their axes at approximately 8 and each of whch receives mage rays from one of said objectves and has its axs dsposec'l at an angle of approxmately 4 to that of the corresponding objectve, an image erectng reflectng system interposed between each of sad objectives and its ocular and comprising a. prsm havng a. pair of opposed,

inc1ned reflecting surfaces disposed. sia an angle of 90, one surface of said prsm being dsposed obliquely upon the axis of said objective to reflect mage rays therefrom to the other surface of said prism, and a -second prism havng a pair 0 refiecting surfaces disposed at an angle of 93 and arranged crosswse of sad first prsm and having one of its refiecting surfaces positioned. oblquely upon the axs of sad ocular, and the other surface of sad second prsm beng postoned. to receve the image rays from the second surface of said first prsm and reflect them to the first mentioned surface of sad second prism, whereby that surface of sad second prsm which crosses the axis of sad ocular Will reflect mage rays nto said ocular along the axis thereof.

I-IA'RVEY N. OTT. 

